by Rich Larson
As the school year approaches, Northfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann sent a letter to all district families
on Friday that laid out the Covid-19 safety protocols the district plans to enforce at the beginning of the year.
While the hope had been that by the beginning of the coming school year we would be clear of the global pandemic, a recent rise in cases across the State of Minnesota, including Rice County, caused by the Delta Variant of the virus, has prompted the district to re-instate certain protocols and virus mitigation practices in order to ensure the health and safety of the staff, the faculty and the student body.
Hillmann said the key components the district will require are masks for everybody and quarantine for those who do test positive for Covid-19.
As of Wednesday, the district will require masks be worn by all people two years of age and older who enter a school building or a school bus, regardless of that person’s vaccination status.
Should a student, faculty member or staff member test positive for Covid-19, they will be required to stay home until they feel better, their symptoms subside, and they are at least ten days removed from taking the test that shows a positive result.
Hillmann said the district is still waiting for guidance regarding the use of masks for those participating in athletics.
He again stressed that the best tool we have as a community against Covid-19 is vaccination. The district estimates about 50% of students 16 and 17 years old, and about 40% of the students ages 12-15, have been vaccinate. His letter included links to information about the vaccines and where people can be vaccinated.
The Northfield School Board will meet tonight, and vote on authorization of the proposed protocols.
The full text of Dr. Hillmann’s letter to the district can be read here.
Dunn gives update on new jail project
Plans are now underway for the construction of the new Rice County Jail.
Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said the advisory committee is meeting every other week with the architect of the new facility from Klein McCarthy Architects in St. Louis Park. He also said that, due to the significance of the project, the Board of Commissioners has decided to hire a Construction Project manager once things are ready to get underway.
“The county board did choose to go with a construction advisor once we get going on it so that we don’t have to a commissioner of someone from the sheriff’s office or from Parks & Maintenance be the lead on this. This is a huge project. This is one of the biggest projects Rice County has ever done.”
Sheriff Dunn said the county is looking at three separate sites upon which to build, and negotiations are ongoing with the owners of all three sites. The design itself will require approximately 14 acres of space, so the optimal site would be 20 acres to allow for parking, training, and future expansion. He said the county is also discussing possibilities with the City of Faribault.
The new facility will hold both the new jail and a new and expanded law enforcement center. Dunn said the conversations with the architects are centered around the flow of the building, the best use of the space, and where those areas of expansion might come into play. Sheriff Dunn said there is always a possibility that the dispatch office could someday be relocated to the building, or eventually a new courthouse could be built there. During the debate about how to best address the inadequacy of the current jail, Sherriff done spoke time and again about the lack of versatility and adaptability in the current space and how problematic that makes things. He said that it is very important that the design of the new facility be able to easily accommodate the needs of the future.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn can be heard here
Summer ending strong at Northfield Public Library
Things have been busy this summer at the Northfield Public Library, and Director of Library Services, Natalie Draper said with
just about a month left there’s still plenty going on.
On Saturday, the library will be a distribution site for Comic Book Day, and Northfield area residents are invited to the library to receive a free comic book. The annual comic celebration is usually held in May but was re-scheduled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One week from tonight on August 16th, at 7pm, Emilio and Dante DeGrazia will present their music and poetry collaboration entitled What Trees Know. The DeGrazia’s are a father/son duo from Winona who have received high praise for their work both together and separately.
The final installation of the library’s summertime Books & Stars concert series will be August 25th in Central Park, featuring the a cappella group, The Fairlanes. Music will begin at 6pm. There will be a storytime prior to the concert at 5:30, and the Bookmobile will be there as well.
Draper said something else to look forward to later this year is a project she and other members of the library staff have been working on with the middle school Summer Blast program, creating stop-motion Lego movies. Draper said the competition among the students to make great cinema has been quite intense.
“I have no idea what the 6th graders are working on, because they won’t tell me. It’s top secret, because they are all in it to win it. There’s a prize. We’re going to have an awards ceremony at the end. The 5th graders are The Academy, so they are voting on who wins which of the ten prizes. We’ll show all of their films on NPB, along with taping the premier event.”
The airing date of the film festival and awards ceremony on Northfield Public Broadcasting has yet to have been announced.
Finally, Draper reminded the community that the Librbary has contracted with a new online, digital service called Hoopla Digital that offers more than 1 million eBooks, audioBooks, graphic novels, movies and television shows. Northfield Library Card holders are allowed to borrow three items a month. The Hoopla Digital App can be found in the app store to download onto your digital device or Smart TV.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. He can be reached at rich@kymnradio.net
